Central African Mining (CAMEC) has reported a ’significant’ coal discovery in Mozambique, which it says will help the company profit from current high prices for the commodity.

The first phase of a drilling programme in the southern African country’s Tete region delineated around 195m tonnes of coal, CAMEC said.

“We are greatly encouraged by the initial results of the exploration programme,” chief executive Andrew Groves said.

“With China’s demand for imported coal alone having tripled since 2003, the growing global demand for coal represents a significant opportunity for CAMEC given these initial results and our other coal assets in South Africa.”